Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1887-08-13
DAILY EBB AND FLOW
OF THE HUMAN TIDE BETWEEN
NEW YORK AND BROOKLYN.

The Tin Bucket Brigade-Long Lines Of
People Hurrying to the Big Bridge.
Running for the Ferry Boats-The Re-
turn Tide.
/ live in Brooklyn, and every morning
n evening make one OF the innumcrable
throng about 2O0, 600, they think who
cross and recrOss East river, and see q
deal Of curious humanity in the process.
AS l come over at all hour from 0 to = a.
m, and return with the same latitude, /
alternate my company very a%greeably.
First is the tin bucket brigade; but / only
see them when l walk down to the bridge
before breakfast. About 5 O'Clock the
throng begins. First come the scavengers
and sweepers, the women who sweep out
the offices, the boys who do the early
morning work, the first relief of messen-
gers and their contemporaries. A little
later every car is crowded with laborers,
brawny men OF the pick and hammer;
about $4,000 Of them come over before z
o'clock. Then there Is q lull for q few
minutes; but soon after breakfast one
sees long lines Of people on all the streets
near the bridge, hurrying to the stairs
merchants, Wall street men, clerks, shop
girls, writer's and people of u hundred
other occupations.
Before 1880 the entrance stairs are
jammed with moving humanity. The
tickets are dropped in the box below
three cents each or forty for q dollar,
the cars are opened and filled in ten sec
onds--1rst corners seated, late Corners
hanging on to the straps-then the clamp
Is turned on to the running cable and we
| are whirled across TO Park row in two
minutes. Each car will seat forty persons
and generally holds fifty; there are three
| cars in each train, n one train a min
ute; SO 1900 people per hour are brought
| over in the cars. The foot passengers
way, below the car track, is crowded at
the same time, II the carriage way, too;
so at least 49, GOO people come over on the
bridge every morning.
ALL THE FERRY BOATS RUNNING.
Meanwhile all the ferry boats are run
| ming at their best. For two hours each
morning and evening they charge but one
cent for passage-the same as footmen pay
On the bridge; at other hours two cents.
| Walking to the foot Of Fulton street,
Brooklyn, any morning about 1880, l OBJ
serve several hundred people break into a
run all at once; the clang at the dock has
1 WILL tttLl LldN ~ uouL ID III, duu WIN
is SO precious that they don't want to lose
the two minutes and a half of waiting for
| the next boat. But it is a well established
| principle of my constitution not TO kill
| myself to keep myself" and l never run
for a train or boat. The roomy passenger
| depots are nice places to wait in, anyhow;
but 1t is curious to see the fdgety people
press against the big iron gate, ready to
jump for the next boat as soon as it is
made fast and the gate run back.
And is all this rushing and crowding
good for humanity Certainly not. A
fellow is swallowed up; his individuality
is lost; he Is not a self existent and re-
spected nal but merely one unit In q
vast aggregate of numbers. Nobody
knows anybody; and from the rush for
first place, and the push for seats, ! should
guess that nobody cares for anybody. l
q crossed OF the cars 4 dozen times,
and can't remember that l have seen the
same person twice. Soon after D q. m.
there is a ~perceptible thinning OF the
crowds, both on bridge and ferries; then
people Of more leisure come over, and
from 10 O'Clock till 2 p. IN one may see
rich dresses on the cars or elegant car
riages on the roadway. About 3 p. m.
the return tide begins to rise, and about
$50 the throng Is much more dense than
in the morning. The crush is awful. Al
most every day some one is painfully
squeezed against the iron railing, and oc-
casionally some feeble one is badly bruised.
Going over from 8 to 6 one sees only a
dense crowd of wearied people; about z
or 7:S0 the return cars contain some Of
these people, cooled and refreshed, bound
for the evening entertainments In New
York; the shop girls who went east in
plain and shop worn dresses are now,
many of them, going west in rather elegant
evening costumes. A dozen first class
theatres and at least fifty second and third
class bring some thousands; the others
scatter among scores of churches, lyceums,
clubs, concert halls, and social gatherings
Of every conceivable kind. III. Beadle
in Rockville Tribune